268 terraNCe CallaN He has women primarily in view, but concludes in 1.32 that permanent parqeni,a is healthy for both males and females 13. the rarity of using parqe,noj and its cognates for men makes it very unlikely that parqe,noj designates men in 1 Cor 7,25. Most commentators on this passage understand parqe,noj as designating only women, usually without even considering that it might also refer to men. C. K. Barrett considers and rejects this possibility mainly because it would mean giving the word parqe,noj a different meaning in v. 25 than it has elsewhere in 7,25-40 14. those who think parqe,noi in 7,25 refers to both men and women recognize this implication. they think that Paul begins by discussing both male and female parqe,noi and proceeds to discuss female parqe,noi specifically, especially in vv. 36-38. Some of those who think parqe,noi in v. 25 refers only to women also understand vv. 25-40 as moving from the general to the particular. However, if parqe,noi in v. 25 refers only to women, there is no obstacle to seeing vv. 25-40 as a lengthy discussion of a single question. Gordon d. Fee has argued that this is the case 15. if parqe,noi in 7,25 refers only to women, what then is the meaning of kalo.n avnqrw,pw| to. ou[twj ei=nai in v. 26? it seems likely that Paul begins his discussion of parqe,noi by repeating with variations what he said in 7,1. the variations arise at least partly from Paul’s modification of the statement in v. 1 in the intervening verses. Paul agrees that kalo.n avnqrw,pw| gunaiko.j mh. a[ptesqai (v. 1), but he does not think this should be interpreted to mean that married people should permanently refrain from sexual intercourse (vv. 2-7), or that people should remain unmar- ried if they cannot control themselves (vv. 8-9), or that married people should divorce (vv. 10-12) unless the unbelieving spouse of a believer is unwilling to remain married (vv. 13-16). everyone should remain as they were when they were called to believe in Christ (vv. 17-24), presumably with the exceptions already noted. thus when Paul repeats the statement of v. 1 in v. 26, he does not speak of not touching a woman, but rather of being thus 16. Since this advice applies to every- 13 Note however, that when Soranus speaks of men and women in 1.30 he speaks of men remaining chaste (me,nontej a;fqoroi) as parallel to parqeni,a for women. 14 C.K. Barrett, The First Epistle to the Corinthians (Harper's New testa- ment Commentaries; New York 1968) 174. in the five other uses of parqe,noj in 1 Cor 7,25-40 (namely vv. 28, 34, 36, 37, 38) it clearly designates women. 15 Fee, First Epistle to the Corinthians, 322-324. 16 Hurd (Origins of 1 Corinthians, 180-181) thinks that kalo.n avnqrw,pw| to. ou[twj ei=nai is another statement of the Corinthians quoted by Paul; so also W. deMiNG, Paul on Marriage and Celibacy. the Hellenistic Background of 1 Corinthians 7 (Grand rapids, Mi 22004) 107-109.